The Update

The update took about 10 minutes to install, weighed 3.7MB or so, and rebooted the phone twice - once to install and once to reboot after the installation, so make sure you don't need to make any important phone calls during that time.

After the update, I immediately noticed the broken application icons (issue #4 on my bug list) fixed. The phone seems is definitely quite a bit snappier, which I hope points in the direction of some fixes in the battery and lag department (issues #1 and #2).

Since there don't seem to be any official details out from HTC or Sprint at the moment (I found out about the update by doing a random Google search and arriving at a random Facebook post), I cannot see the final bug fix and feature list, but here's what I managed to gather so far from my own observations and online [1][2]:

What's New

Fixes

broken app icons are fixed. This issue was also known as the boot caching issue

broken app names are somewhat fixed. Some of mine weren't but I reinstalled them and so far they display correctly

the major battery draining 100% awake SMS and letting the phone go to sleep after boot bugs are fixed. I've gone ahead and uninstalled HandcentSMS to see if my visual voicemail notifications will come back (they seemed to have gone away after I switched to Handcent)

not receiving SMS when low on space is fixed

memory leak related to bluetooth is fixed

dialer app using too much CPU bug is fixed

daylight savings time calendar issue is fixed

the stereo headphone issue is fixed

Improvements

the phone is a lot snappier - the lag is pretty much gone in a lot of cases but it's still there in others, especially in the Phone app and the browser. For example, I killed the browser and started it again - it took 20 seconds before google.com was loaded, 10 of which I spent staring at an almost completely white screen I have a feeling it is due to fixing something with the cleaning up of the old uninstalled apps. My theory is that the Hero didn't uninstall the apps properly, perhaps leaving their cache behind, thus slowing down more and more as I tried out more and more apps

Update: I just charged the battery and I think the battery charged a lot faster than before, which is a really good sign

loading of app lists seems to be a lot faster. By that I mean any time the phone shows a list of installed applications, it seems to show up a lot faster than before (Add shortcut, Manage, etc)

camera quality is improved

New Features

app search - if you push the search button from anywhere inside the Market app, it now pops up the app search dialog rather than the regular google search

there are 2 new icons during a phone call: mute and speaker. I took a photo of this, which you can see below

the green Android dude looks more 3D-ish now - a minor but nice UI change

Problems

a lot of users are reporting that some of their apps, including paid ones, have gone missing

the haptic feedback (vibrate on press) in the Phone app is now permanently on, even though I turned it off in the keyboard settings. I am fairly sure it's either a bug or a new "feature" that we didn't want, as it doesn't respect phone-wide settings

Miscellaneous Notes

the update did not fix the all-day event 1 day too early notification problem

I did not find an update for the voicemail app that some people mentioned (mine is at v5.0.0.32)

the "linked program is no longer installed on your phone" problem that I'm having with my Twidroid shortcut every time I update it is still there (it goes away after phone reboot)

Overall, I'm very happy that Sprint and HTC are coming through. I was really afraid they would wait for the next big thing (Android "Eclair" 2.0) instead of releasing the necessary bug fixes but, thankfully, that didn't happen.

What else did you notice with the new upgrade that I missed? Is anything broken?

&lt;p&gt;The update took about 10 minutes to install, weighed 3.7MB or so, and rebooted the phone twice - once to install and once to reboot after the installation, so make sure you don't need to make any important phone calls during that time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;li&gt;loading of app lists seems to be a lot faster. By that I mean any time the phone shows a list of installed applications, it seems to show up a lot faster than before (Add shortcut, Manage, etc)&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;there are 2 new icons during a phone call: mute and speaker. I took a photo of this, which you can see below &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;I did not find an update for the voicemail app that some people mentioned (mine is at v5.0.0.32)&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;the &quot;linked program is no longer installed on your phone&quot; problem that I'm having with my Twidroid shortcut every time I update it is still there (it goes away after phone reboot)&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;the phone still lags for me overall. I really do want to be one of the people who don't experience any lag but it does, although seemingly less than before&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;the haptic feedback (vibrate on press) in the Phone app is back, though I turned it off before. No big deal - guess it got overwritten during the upgrade &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;

i m also observing the same thing , there is a change in the camera of the mobile phone

Dave

My bluetooth problems are fixed. I had a headset that would not connect 90% of the time and would eat up my internal storage. Now it connects flawlessly and doesn't lose any internal storage. Also, before I had 50 MB available on internal storage, after update I'm at 104 MB with nothing uninstalled or changed, only running the update saved me 54 MB of internal memory.

counterfeit187

in regards to the callander problem. I'm pretty sure it is supposed to notify you of an all day event one day early. This doesn't seem to be an error as far as I know. I think it's a good thing to have an early reminder, i.e. for my phone to tell me something like "Mom's birthday tomorrow."

Tyler

After the firmware update, my 3.5mm headphone jack isn't working. I've got headphones plugged in, but the sound is all coming out of the external speaker.

Although some of the other updates are nice, this is not a good look!

Tyler

After a little googling, i'm not sure this is necessarily related to the new firmware. A number of others have reported similar headphone detection problems unrelated to firmware upgrades.

Russ

In regards to the headset recognition problem... I have noticed that if I boot the phone with a headset plugged in, it won't recognize it, even if I unplug it and plug it back in. However, if I reboot the phone without the headset plugged in, it will then recognize it when I plug it in. I'm not sure if the firmware update fixed that problem, but I'll find out soon.

Mikey

In reference to the headphone issue not working, I found this happens when ever you restart the handset with the headphones plugged in, disconnect and restart and it should work fine, I no longer restart it with headphones plugged.

Love the device !!!!!!! but still trying to get use to the small screen, if only it would have had at least 3.5 screen it would have been a definite keeper.

Does this upgrade apply to Verizon's version of the Hero (The Eris) Feedback would be much appreciated.

Hollie

does this apply to all the HTC Hero's? as i only bought mine on Monday. Pleased with it so far.. my firmware software says 1.5. Am i ready for a update? As i'm unable to click the Firmware option in the settings.

@MyDailyRoutineCan’tREADtoWell

That's the Sprint Hero dude. No one cares about the Eris or Verizon. It's shit.

Spadoot

Dude, that's really rude. If you can't be helpful, why would you waste the time to write something so harsh? Grow up, you're not 14 any more. I hope.

I agree...grow up. Everyone on here is trying to help answer questions. Thats what this is for. Don't mess it up by being rude and immature.

Z-LIBERATOR

yES IT APPLIES TO YOUR NEW PHONE TOO AS FAR AS THE ERIS NO UPDATE YET, DO YOU HAVE THE SAME ISSUES?

@MyDailyRoutine Says:
November 20th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Does this upgrade apply to Verizon's version of the Hero (The Eris) Feedback would be much appreciated.

joe d

im having issues restarting my hero...everytime i do, i get a force close on everything, cant make calls, go online, nothing...cant go into settings...what do i do?

JG

I'm having the same problem after the update. I had a similar issue before, not related to the update,and it was due to some apps I had installed from the market. This time it's definitely due to the update, and maybe an incompatibility with one of my apps. Did you get your issue fixed? Thanks.

LJ

I have the same problem, It sucks.
I can't send or receive texts, calls anything, can't enter anything that came on the phone like youtube, the flash app my wifi works and my dolpinhbrowser and my music app from the market but thats it, my phone never gets signal, it doesn't even roam like my antenna doesn't even exist. I'm extremely P.O. and kinda dissapointed with either HTC, Sprint, or Google and Android.
@JG But out of curiousity to try and help me out. What app messed up your phone? Please Reply with the names of apps you deleted to fix your problem. Oh yea my HTC Syne won't work so I can't even back my stuff up so I can hard reset it or something. :(

LJ

Okay, I clear all the data for my apps (carefully-one by one) and now everything seems to be fixed, Been working Flawlessly for 2 weeks now, hoping its permanent and considering rooting :D Thanks for all the help.. Not. lol

Klop

FYI, with 1.6 it seems to be an issue when you have more than about 70 apps. If you restart and it starts force closing like crazy and won't get a signal (happened to me 3x), go in and uninstall a couple of those pointless apps you've tried and restart. The fix works :-)

Jaime

I lost two paid apps. I cannot search for them either. I even tried downgrading again to see and search again to no avail. My only resort was to flash it back to the last state I had the apps, but I really do not want to have to do this since I want this update. What are we supposed to do about the paid apps?

You Can Find Just About Any App Online for Free (Paid or Free) all free online. Example: PicSay Pro. a couple bucks on market... google "PicSay Pro.apk free of .zip" but it must have the apk in it thats androids version or compressed files and folders." and download the file and extract it from your phone via Micro SD card. you can download it straight the to Micro SD Card from the phone itself online from the browser (I use Dolphin Browser-the original before stupid ad update) just go to Settings/Applications/and check "Unknown Sources" :) Hope That Helps :)

darrel simons

thank you for the info!
found your blog via one of the android forums,
enjoyed your review (99% spot-on imho) and have already updated firmware!

Alex

Hi I use the firmware update and everything but I am having problems where my Sprint HTC hero is repeatedly turning off after even the slightest of touches to the back or even the sides. I literally cant drop it more than 3 inches onto a pillow without it shutting off. Its such a pain bacause it takes so long to power on..Please Help!!!

Alex, sounds like you have serious hardware problems with your Hero. You should have it looked at.

Alex

I had brought it in to the sprint store and recieved a new phone in which the problem still occured. After that, I brought it in once again and they just exchanged the battery. still the same problem....could it be something i downloaded? any other Ideas? thanks man

Kenny,
that is indeed an Android feature, except it doesn't switch between open apps - it only switches between the last 6 used apps (which could have been closed since). Not the same but definitely helps.

I am thinking about buying the HTC hero. I am really impressed with what people said it does. But, there is a problem. It's really, really important that the phone gets a decent battery life! Can anyone tell me (specifically) what I can do to resolve this problem. Thanks!!!